Firebombers To Remain In Custody Judge Says Teens Have Not Shown Enough Remorse For Throwing Molotov Cocktail At Quakertown Home Last Year.

February 10, 1996|by CHRISTOPHER ELSER, The Morning Call

The two teen-agers who firebombed a Quakertown townhouse have not yet shown enough remorse and will continue to be held in custody, a Bucks County judge ruled yesterday.

Owen Cole, 16, will be placed in a foster home in Macungie as part of a treatment program and Steven Wang, 17, will continue to be held at the North Central Secure Treatment Unit in Danville, Judge Isaac S. Garb said.

"From where I sit, I'm not sure either of you grasp or understand what effect your actions had," Garb said. "Would you understand it better if someone died?"

Two of the victims, Glenn and Theresa Stitzel, were in the courtroom yesterday for the review hearing for Cole and Wang. Theresa Stitzel and her husband and their two sons, Corey and Casey, were forced to jump from an upstairs window when their home on Congress Court was set ablaze by a Molotov cocktail last January.

Cole and Wang -- both of Asian ancestry -- told police they were retaliating for ethnic slurs made to them by Corey Stitzel during school. Theresa Stitzel denied her son said anything to the boys.

"He is not a racist nor are his parents," she said. "It was all lies and totally false. He has to live with this his whole life. That's not something a 16-year-old should have to live with."

Cole and Wang had been sentenced in March to nine months at the Danville correctional facility. Their present sentence will be reviewed in another nine months. They will be under court supervision until they turn 21.

The teen-agers -- each supported by his parents -- answered Garb's questions with short answers, usually limiting themselves to "yes" or "no." Wang gave a letter to the Stitzels, while Cole declined to talk to them.

Cole's supervisor from the treatment unit said he was excelling in school and in his programs but still hadn't taken full responsibility for throwing the firebomb -- an iced tea bottle filled with gasoline, ignited with a dinner napkin.

Cole does not like to talk about the fire, North Central Secure Treatment Unit counselor Ken Ross said.

"He would like to take his crime and put it in a little box and put it under the desk," Ross said.

"I still don't believe we have gotten remorse or general disgust (from Cole) for what he did to his victims," Ross said.

Wang's review was worse. His supervisor, Susan Alberti, said he was less than honest with the staff and had written a letter in December to the classmate who turned him and Cole into the police. The letter said the pair were planning revenge on the informant.

Later, Wang told the staff he had given up the scheme.

While Wang did well in school, he will not be allowed to take his General Equivalency Degree test until he is more honest in his day-to-day life, she said.

He also is less than honest with his parents, who are being extremely supportive to him, Alberti said.

"He needs to choose the honest way of life or lose them," she said.

Cole and Wang will be released eventually, Theresa Stitzel said, but her family's life will never be the same.

For that, the Quakertown woman said, no punishment can be too severe for the two.

"Sooner or later, these boys will be free, but we will never be free," Stitzel said. "We will live with this pain and fear for the rest of our lives."

Stitzel said she still has medical problems from hitting the ground. She also suffers from anxiety and depression, she told Garb.

"If a fire engine comes down the street, I shake like terrible," she said.